13th Batumi International Arthouse Film Festival finished on September 23th. The closing ceremony was held in Batumi State Music Centre, musically accompanied by the Batumi Jazz-band.

For 8 days, the audience was able to see feature and documentary films from different sections of the festival in cinema "Apolo". Masters Collection programme, discussed in the previous letter, was especially interesting one. Interesting open air screenings were offered at Era Square for the audience gathered outdoors.

The festival presented three competition programmes: feature, documentary and short films. International competition section jury was headed by Sergei Rakhlin (USA). The others, working in the jury with him were: Bence Fliegauf (Hungary), Oleg Negin (Russia), Alin Tasciyan (Turkey) and Levan Tutberidze (Georgia).

According to the jury's decision, the festival Grand Prix was awarded to Richard Billingham's "Ray and Liz". Ella Smith from the same film became the best actress award holder.

Alice Rohrwacher was nominated as a Best Film Director for film "Happy as Lazzaro". It is to note that this film won the nomination of the best screenplay at Cannes and its 30-year-old director was met with a 20 minute applause. At Batumi Film Festival, this film was an absolute favorite. That's why Georgian actor of this film, Luka Chikovani had to go up the stage several times. The same film won the nomination of Best Actor and the prize was awarded to Adriano Tardiolo.

The Jury Prize was awarded to the Georgian production - Horizon by Tinatin Kajrishvili. This film was premiered at Berlin Film Festival and it tells the story of a young man (Giorgi Bochorishvili), who lives in a seashore house, isolated, trying to start everything over.

"Every film could have become a winner. Especially in the documentary section, a lots of interesting works were presented, - said Vitaly Mansky Head of Documentary Films international competition section Jury, - the pity is that only a few people went to see the documentaries. In fact, these films help us broaden our point of view." The jury awarded a special prize to Audrius Stonys for the film Bridges of Time.

As for the short films competition, Eraser by David Pirtskhalava became the winner. To remember, this film participated in competition programme of the Locarno Film Festival this year. Two more films were awarded special diplomas from the jury - All these Creatures by Charles Williams and Delivery by Yazan Al Ghazzawi.

First time this year, the jury of Georgian film critics was made up. Its members: Gogi Gvakharia, Lela Ochiauri and Teo Khatiashvili watched the main competition programme. During the award ceremony, Teo Khatiashvili, a film critic, went up the stage and awarded Alice Rohrwacher's film Happy as Lazzaro for the special director's view. The jury also awarded Sergei Loznitsa's Donbas with the special notion for the right social position.

The festival has been awarding cinema workers for the special contribution to the cinema. Including: Otar Iosseliani, Béla Tarr, Eldar Shengelaia, Andrzej Wajda, Aleksandre Rekhviashvili, Rezo Cheishvili, Nastassja Kinski, Abbas Kiarostami etc.This year BIAFF 2018 Lifetime Achievement award was honored to DoP Lomer Akhvlediani. National Film Centre director awarded Gela Kandelaki (Director, Animator) and Soso Bardanashvili with the same prize as well during the closing ceremony. Soso Bardanashvili, born in Batumi, is Israel based composer, who's created music for more than 50 films, including "The Other Side" and Corn Island by Giorgi Ovashvili.